I’m certainly happy to pay a couple of days earlier in order to win a holiday – and it doesn’t have to be such an extravagant prize, I would be happy with a couple of movie tickets!

Ideally, a cleared payment should be in your trust account on the day that it’s due – can something to that effect be stipulated in the Lease Agreement?

You want to encourage your tenants to pay earlier right from the start – bring it up with them as soon as they express interest in the property and educate them on bank processing times. This is actually when you should introduce the ‘preferred’ payment method :)

Any thoughts/advice?

I agree with Hania that tenant education should be commenced prior to / at time of signing the tenancy agreement. We stipulate with our tenants that they pay the 2 weeks + bond upfront prior to receiving the keys for the tenancy, and then rent is payable again 1 week into the tenancy (ie, they should be at least 1 week in advance at all times). This also allows for any banking delays with payment transfers etc and provides the tenant with an exceptional payment history which should assist them down the track when purchasing a home or applying for a car loan, etc.

The competition for prompt payments sounds like a good idea, but how would that be monitored? With a large rent roll of approx 1300, it would be a mammoth task to check each tenant to ensure they were paying at least 2 days prior to the rent due date for a 5 month period to confirm eligibility to enter the draw… how was this done?

Perhaps simply stating that if they do not fall into arrears (ie, being 1 day overdue with rent) they would be in the draw to pick up the prize…  may be an easier option to monitor from the agency point of view?

Not sure what the best tracking tool would be, (especially with such a rent-roll!), but I would start with the arrears list from your property management software – these ones are automatically eliminated :)

With a rent-roll that big, how are you guys managing rent payments?

We are right in the midst of introducing a rent payment card service, so we have the one upload & automatic receipting through our software from our daily bank statement, which will relieve some of the pressure on the girls.

We have previously had BPay, direct deposit, credit card, eftpos options available which will now be streamlined through the new card.

Naturally rent arrears are monitored daily of course and thankfully we have a very low rate of arrears.

automatic receipting – it’s a must! 

Absolutely – added extra’s should include comprehensive reporting, identified payments, a management portal and reduced bank fees!

Katie – is it a bank product you are implementing?

No, it’s via Corum Real Estate Services – RE/MAX MAXCard

Cool.  Are there tenants fees with this one?  Will you be able to encourage direct debit :-) Lurrrvvvv DD :-)

And what are the fees to your office?